Joy to Our World

Mortal! We Spirits of Christmas do not live only one day of our year. We live the whole three hundred and sixty-five. So is it true of the Child born in Bethlehem. He does not live in men’s hearts one day of the year, but in all the days of the year.
-A Christmas Carol

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

-Jesus, John 10:10

I’m so excited about Christmas this year that I’ve been breaking unwritten rules by listening to Christmas albums EARLY. I find myself listening to carols on the way to work with tears streaming down my face. Pretty crazy, right? It’s just that Christmas keeps smacking me in the face with the idea of joy. This world really sucks sometimes. Broken relationships, broken dishes, broken jobs, broken bodies, broken everything sometimes. I get caught up in the brokenness a lot. So when I turn on my Christmas music, things like joy, peace, and holy nights filter past my feelings and flood my imagination. The gospel shines out like all the lit candles during a Christmas Eve service. It fills up my days like a stuffed stocking on Christmas morning. Like a star on top of a Christmas tree, the good news of Jesus coming to earth brightens and transforms my home life and my work life and everything in between.

Come and worship Christ the King. Drop whatever you’re doing and just gaze at Him. Then give Him all your gifts of sorrows, of joys, of talents, of time. Go tell it on a mountain that our Jesus Christ is born. Live your life where everyone around you can see you and hear your story of what He has done for you; for them; for all of us. Ransom captive Israel. He has freely rescued you from yourself, from sin, from people-pleasing, from a 9-5 sort of job, from our terrible histories, for His love redeems all those things. Our mourning can finally end and our rejoicing can be loud because He has finally come. No more let sins and sorrows infest the ground. Whatever you’ve done, whatever others have done to you, don’t let them take root in you! Jesus would go on to say, “Go and sin no more.“ Let us root out our sorrows and sins and allow God to plant His joy and peace in us. Our sorrows are not any less real because of Christmas, of course, but we do know that their end is finally in sight. God with man is now residing. Abiding in us. Making all things new, making abundant life in each of us. Born to die. For you, for me, for our past, for our present, and for our future.

This gospel, this good news, is why we take time to prepare and celebrate. God Himself came as a baby born in poverty, only to grow up, show us the Kingdom of God, and then die alone to save the sorry lot of humanity. Why shouldn’t it stop us in our tracks? Break us out of our routine, crack our daily mirrors, make us drop our coffee cups, keep us up at night? I don’t want to be like the innkeeper who couldn’t find any room for Jesus, the King of the Universe. Sure, He’ll find some way to make His presence known in our lives and maybe even be born in the stable in the back. But don’t I want to fully invite the glories of His righteousness, the wonders of His love, to wash over me and transform me?

So I’m making room for Him, in this upcoming Christmas season and for all the rest of the year. Let us remind ourselves of the great story of Jesus, how He came to reconcile humanity to Himself,  and how He Himself is in the business of giving joy and making all celebration possible. Let us each prepare Him room, then. Let us be filled to the brim with His joy and peace. Let us be overflowing with the joy and hope of the season all year-round, so His much-needed joy will be spread throughout this world.